The notice was subsequently retracted a day later but the matter was not resolved.

Enta chairman Jason Tsai revealed today the petition was connected to a supposed claim from the taxman for £1m worth of VAT repayments, but said this was due to a misunderstanding over inter company trading.

He told us it met with HMRC last week to discuss the situation but said officials wanted two weeks to consider their position.

"That would have made our suppliers nervous so we wanted to go straight to court to get the petition struck off," he told The Channel.

The case was heard at the Royal Courts on 6 June and dismissed by the judge, a development that was noted by the Gazette on 7 June.

"The whole episode can be described as 'Civil Servants Syndrome,'"said Tsai. "There is no accountability when civil servants make mistakes," he added.

He claimed HMRC should not have placed the petition, and in recognition of this, the RCJ has "ordered HMRC to compensate Enta for all legal costs incurred in defending the petition".

An HMRC solicitor confirmed the petition was "no longer live" but refused to comment further.

HMRC's press person told us that it could not comment on individual company cases. ®